take the rap

Cultural  

1. To be punished or blamed, especially when innocent: “The crime boss arranged it so that his underling took the rap for the insurance scam.”

---

take the rap Idioms  

1. Be punished or blamed for something, as in I don't want to take the rap for Mary, who forgot to mail the check in time, or Steve is such a nice guy that he's always taking the rap for his colleagues. This slangy idiom originally used rap in the sense of “a criminal charge,” a usage still current. By the mid-1900s it was also used more broadly.

---

Example Sentences

One of the suspects reconsiders the possibility that his confederate will cash in on the promise of a deal, leaving him alone to take the rap.

From Salon • Dec. 5, 2020

But an attorney for Swearingen denies such a plot exists with a second death-row inmate, Anthony Shore, and Shore has not tried to take the rap for Swearingen’s convictions.

From Reuters • Oct. 22, 2017

Military responsibility is what it is; in the end the top man had to take the rap.

From The Guardian • Aug. 23, 2017

Thus far, the conversation about who will take the rap trophy has tightly focused on Iggy Azalea.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2015

“Oh, give me a break, Fisher! Do you want to take the rap for something that you didn’t do?”

From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor